Agriculture & Food

#2026/110Northern Ireland Allows Electronic Eartags for Cattle Identification

🇬🇧United Kingdom··Other·Low Impact·View source ↗

AI-generated summary for informational purposes only. Not legal advice. See the original source for the authoritative text.

🇬🇧 English

The regulations allow cattle keepers in Northern Ireland to use an approved electronic eartag as part of cattle identification. The electronic tag can replace one of the two conventional eartags already required for cattle. This mainly affects farmers, cattle keepers, livestock markets, and others involved in cattle traceability. It gives them an optional digital identification method, but only where the electronic eartag has been approved by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

AI-generated summary. May contain errors. Refer to official sources for legal decisions.

Key Changes

  • Allows an approved electronic eartag to replace one conventional cattle eartag
  • Updates the definition of approved eartag to include electronic eartags approved under the relevant rules
  • Creates a new rule explaining when electronic eartags may be used for cattle identification

Obligations

What this law requires

medium

Persons responsible for identifying cattle in Northern Ireland may replace one of the required conventional eartags with an electronic eartag only if that electronic eartag has been approved by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

persons responsible for identifying cattlecattle keepers
From 3 July 2026
operational

Affected Parties

Cattle farmers and keepers in Northern IrelandLivestock markets and cattle traceability operators+1 more…

Tags

cattle identification,electronic eartags,Northern Ireland